


Wander in the Night

by SmittyJaws



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-23
Updated: 2014-02-03
Packaged: 2018-01-09 17:02:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 5,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1148582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SmittyJaws/pseuds/SmittyJaws
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John Benton just wanted to enjoy his 3 days of leave. Unfortunately, some beings have other plans for him. 10 chapters, each written for a separate fanfic100 prompt.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Black

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own OCs, should I create any for these stories.
> 
> Author's Note: My first multi-chapter work since... 2007 (wow, it's been ages), and first in this fandom. Hope you enjoy.

Every year, servicemen in the British army are entitled to a certain number of days off, and Sergeant John Benton was no exception. He was currently planning on using 3 days of his annual leave to go visit his mother and sister, who he didn’t get to see very often. How old would Mavis be now, he wondered as he waited for the Brigadier to do one last check of his paperwork before he could leave. Suddenly, he was pulled from his reverie by the Brigadier calling his name. “Sergeant Benton! Your leave form; that is, unless you no longer want to leave?”

“Sorry, Sir. Thank you,” Benton replied quickly, trying to pretend that he hadn’t been daydreaming right there in the Brig’s office. He took the papers and went to leave the room, but before he had made it out the door, he was stopped again. “Oh, and Sergeant?”

He wondered what he had done this time. “…yes, Sir?”

“Enjoy your leave.”

With a grin of relief that he hadn’t been caught out for anything, Benton responded, “Thank you, Sir. I plan to.”

———

Benton had packed up his items from his quarters earlier, and had just gotten changed into civilian attire to go drive to see his mother and sister. He left the base with no troubles, and began the drive towards London. Along the way, he noticed that his car was running uncomfortably low on gasoline, so he pulled over at the first service station he saw. This turned out to be one that looked to be rather run down, so he tried to get his business taken care of as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately, he was unaware that he was being watched by two pairs of curious eyes…

———

From afar, two creatures watched Benton as he filled his car. _“Yesssssss….this one will ssssssuit our needsssss perfectly…._ ” the larger of the two hissed. _”Our lasssssst sssssubjectsssss were not nearly ssssso ssssturdy.”_

_“Our lassssst sssssubjectsssss were alssssso not of this species, Healer. You are sssssssure of thissssss, though? He will not object to helping to further our tesssstsssss?”_

_“Of coursssssse I am sssssure, Ssssstudent. Who could object to furthering a noble caussssse ssssuch assss Ssssscience and helping to sssssssave our sssssssspeciessss?”_

———

Meanwhile, Benton had finished up and paid, and had since driven away from the station. However, after 10 minutes or so, he noticed that his wallet was missing. He sighed and realized that he must have left it at the filling station. Nothing for it but to drive back and get it. At the first opportunity, he turned his car around and headed back the way he came.

———

 _“Healer! The creature hassssss returned! It issss jussst asssss you ssssssaid!”_ the smaller of the creatures waved excitedly.

_“Indeed he hasssss, Ssssstudent. Now, we mussssst move quickly, before we losssssse our opportunity.”_

———

Benton arrived back at the station to find it still deserted, and his wallet lying by the pump he had used previously. _Thank God for small miracles,_ he sighed in relief and prepared to leave. Suddenly, though, he heard a noise like an injured animal coming from behind the station itself.

Never one to like to hear anyone (or anything) in suffering, he went to go investigate. But as soon as he had rounded the corner of the building, he felt a sudden pinch on a bundle of nerves at the base of his neck, causing him to collapse.

The last thing he saw before everything went black were two strange creatures looking down at him.


	2. White

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own OCs, should I create any for these stories.

When Benton woke up, he found he was lying on a bed in a plain white room. He hadn’t been tied down, which was a nice change, but he had still been taken against his will. He stood up and began to search the room for any means of escape.

However, his search yielded nothing - no windows, and only the thinnest seam possible where he assumed the door to be. However, he had discovered that the ceiling of the room was indeed high enough for him to stand up (a benefit that someone of his height didn’t always get), and that the room was roughly 10’ x 10’. How that helped him, he wasn’t sure yet.

As for how it was lit… it was odd. There were no physical lights that he could see, and yet the entire room was well-lit. Benton had the sneaking suspicion that whatever was at play here, something alien was involved.

Just then, the seam widened and a door slid open, revealing two reptilian creatures. They were both relatively small; the larger of the two only coming up to Benton’s chest level. They didn’t appear to be armed, but Benton had learned that you could never be sure about who carried weapons and how alien creatures managed to hide them so well, so he didn’t make a move to bolt out the door quite yet.

“Greetingsssssss, creature,” the larger one addressed him with a hiss as they entered the room. “I trust your accommodations are to your liking?”

“I’ve had worse,” Benton responded honestly. “But I was still brought here against my will. What’s going on here?”

“My humblest apologies, creature. We require your assistance, and could not risssssk you declining our offer. We mean you no harm.”

“So you kidnapped me.” Benton was frowning now.

“Unfortunately, the circumssssstances required us to bring you here by force. But we have no wish to attack you or othersssss of your kind, creature. We are here only in the name of Sssssscience.”

“Well, whatever it is, I don’t want any part of it. I was kidnapped, and I want to leave.” And with that, Benton attempted to make a dash for the door, only to be tackled from behind by the smaller of the two lizard-creatures. They were clearly a lot stronger than they looked, as Benton was pinned underneath the one that had jumped on him and was now unable to move.

The larger one shook its head. “I was afraid of thissssss.” It sighed, then made a motion toward the smaller one on Benton’s back. “Bring him to the laboratory. We mussssst begin the tests before it is too late.” Then, crouching, it addressed Benton. “I apologize again, creature, but we require your assistance, whether you give it freely or not. Our people will be sssssssaved.”


	3. Colourless

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own OCs, should I create any for these stories.

Benton was forced to get to his feet by the smaller lizard-creature, and made to walk down an innumerable amount of corridors and passageways until they reached the creatures’ lab.

At this point, the larger one ordered him to remove his jacket. He initially resisted, but the smaller lizard had needed only slightly shift its grasp on his wrist to twist his arm uncomfortably. “All right, all right! I’ll take it off. No need to use violence.”

“Good.” The larger one seemed to smile. “We abhor the use of violence, as it goes our nature as Scientistssss and healersssss.”

Benton couldn’t help but feel there was some irony to that statement, given the way he had been brought there, but said nothing and removed his jacket, leaving him in just a t-shirt. They then gestured over to a chair that was sitting in the centre of the room, indicating that he should sit down.

He sat down, noting that the chair was slightly too small for a person of his size. It must have been designed for members of their own species… whatever that species was.

As the smaller one moved to secure Benton to the chair using some form of rope, Benton finally decided to ask the question: “So what do you need me for, anyway?”

The larger one didn’t look up from where it seemed to be preparing some medical instruments of some kind. “Our race is dying, creature; dying of a terrible plague. Not even our strongest warriorsssss have been able to withstand the sicknessssss. So our rulersssss sent out a team of our world’s greatest scientists and healersssssss to attempt to find a cure on another world. We have traveled far and are all that is left of our once large team, and time is running short for our people. We have not been able to find a sssssspecies with an immune system that is compatible with our own to create a vaccine for our people. We are hoping that your sssssspecies will provide us with the key we ssssso desperately need.”

“Is that it? Why didn’t you just say so in the first place, rather than kidnap me?”

“Regrettably, we have found that not all racesssss are as willing to listen to our pleasssss for help,” the smaller one growled as it finished binding him, then began to swab a patch of skin on Benton’s upper arm. “We have had to learn to work in ssssssecret and use force when necessary.” It finished, then began to hook up what appeared to be a form of large diagnostic screen, attaching a lead to Benton’s wrist.

The larger one turned toward Benton, now holding a syringe with a needle. “We have sssssssynthesized a drug that will ensure that we can create a cure from your ssssssspecies’ DNA, rather than poison our people with foreign contaminantssssss and the like. Our lasssssst subjects were not strong enough to handle the drug but they were not nearly as…. ssssssturdy in appearance as you are. We have every confidence that you will ssssssurvive this.”

Now aware of the harsh reality of the possibility of his own impending death, Benton could only respond with: “Well, it’s not like I’ve got much of a choice, have I?” before the lizard creature brought the syringe over and injected him with the colourless liquid that was inside.


	4. Shapes

It didn’t take very long for the drug to start affecting Benton - he started feeling simultaneously hot and cold, and was periodically hit with sudden dizzy spells. He wasn’t able to do much for his head, though, as he was still strapped into the chair, so the pounding in his head just got worse and worse.

“Healer, look at these resultsssss. He isssssss doing better than we thought he would.”

Benton groaned, as even that small disruption of the quiet in the room set his headache off even more. By now, he was seeing spots in his field of vision - any time he dared open his eyes to the light, that was.

“We have never had any readings like thissssss before. Perhaps it is a ssssssign that this species is strong enough.”

By now, Benton could no longer hold his head up, and every time he tried to open his eyes, he noticed that the drug was doing odd things to his vision. He couldn't distinguish between different objects in the room any more; they all just appeared as a large blur of odd shapes.

“His temperature continues to rise, Healer. Are you sure thisssssss is wise? Perhaps this species is not the one we ssssssseek for our cure.”

“I am sure, Ssssssstudent. We must sssssssimply give him more time to ensure the drug takes effect.”

Benton could no longer focus on what was being said around him; he felt far too awful to even care. Then he felt a clawed hand touch his arm, and that was the last straw - he gave up the fight with consciousness and passed out.

“Healer, he has lossssst consciousnesssssss. Should we not tend to his fever now?”

“Yesssssss, Student. If he ssssssssurvives this, we will be able to create our cure.”

———

Benton drifted for a long time in a sea of darkness and pain. Whether that was physical pain or mental, he wasn’t sure. But during that time, he saw all sorts of monsters converging on him, as well as people he thought were his friends: the Brigadier, Miss Grant, Captain Yates, the Doctor - all chasing after him and mocking him derisively. He begged them to stop, but if anything, that only made them louder. He tried running, but never seemed to get anywhere.

Some tiny part of his subconscious was whispering that it wasn’t real, but Benton was having a hard time paying attention to that when he was too busy trying to shut out the mocking shouts of _“Too ‘delicate’ for intelligence work, Benton”_ , _“You’ve outlived your usefulness, Sergeant”_ , and _“Don’t be such an idiot, Benton”_ , among others.

He didn’t remember when he had finally just hunched up into a ball, covering his face with his hands, crying “Make it stop! Please stop!”, but eventually the white-hot frenzy that was this horrible nightmare began to dull and fade away into pure, cool blackness.

Fever broken, Benton slept. But he wasn’t out of the woods yet.


	5. Sight

Benton wasn’t entirely sure how long he had been unconscious for, but when he woke up, he found he was no longer in the chair, but lying down (presumably in the room he had started in) on a bed. He found that he had a pounding headache and he still felt rather weak and sick. But what was most horrifying was that upon opening his eyes slowly, he discovered that the drug he had been injected with had stolen his sight. "Good.. you have awoken."

Benton visibly started upon hearing the voice, not having known that there was anyone else in the room with him. "Who's there?" he called, hoping that his nervousness at being functionally helpless didn't show in his voice.

"It issssss I." Benton then recognized the voice as being one of the lizard creatures, and felt grateful for the fact that they hadn't abandoned him someplace. "Our testssssss are complete. You were a perfect match. We have managed to create a cure for our people while you were unconscioussssss. We thank you for your generosssssssity."

"While I'm glad you managed to save your people, your drug has left me blind." Benton pointed at his eyes. "Can you fix it? Please?"

"Unfortunately, we can not. We do not possess the resourcesssssss to determine what element of our chemical has caused thissssss unforeseen....reaction. No species has ever displayed this sssssssymptom before."

"You mean, I'm stuck like this? How am I going to get home, then?"

"Do not worry," the second lizard spoke up, startling Benton again. "We will take you back to the place we took you from. You will be returned to your mobility craft. All will be well."

"Now, we mussssssssst make preparations to leave, as we are required back on our world as quickly as we can be. Please excuse usssssss," the first voice spoke up again. Benton then heard footsteps, and a door closing, leaving him truly alone in his room.

He tried sitting up slowly, and winced as his head spun with that simple action. _There goes any plan of trying to stand or move any time soon,_ he mused. "Well, this is bloody wonderful," he muttered to himself, head in his hands. "What am I going to do now?"


	6. Dark

John Benton had never been afraid of the dark. Sure, he had had a healthy fear of heights (or rather, falling from them) as a boy after Chris had died, a dislike of spiders, and a slight amount of claustrophobia, but never a fear of the dark.

Why should he have been, when any doubts he might have had about what was potentially lurking in his wardrobe were easily dispelled with the flick of a lightswitch?

Besides, someone had to be the sensible one and realize there was nothing waiting in the shadows to eat him - he’d had a younger brother, and then a younger sister to look out for who believed that there were.

He’d been the one that Chris had crawled into bed with in the middle of the night, terrified of staying alone in his own bed. And after Mavis was born, she’d always seen him as a bit of a brave hero due to his interest in the military. He hadn’t been able to be around as much, due to having joined the army shortly after she’d turned 8, but she always asked for her brave soldier brother to check the chest of drawers and under the bed for her before he’d joined up. If he visited when he had leave, she’d ask him to do it then.

Someone had to be the brave one; the one that others relied on to keep a clear head. But what happened when he needed someone to be brave for him? He had no one to lean on. What was he supposed to do now, when this darkness couldn’t be fixed with the flip of a switch? When this disability could very well cost him his job; his livelihood?

At that thought, his mind shifted into panic mode. What if this couldn’t be fixed? What if he was stuck being blind forever? What would he do? He tried to curb his thoughts from straying into irrational territory, but it was difficult. All he could think about was that he was about to be abandoned in the middle of the English countryside - sick, blind, with no way to get home, and that he might very well be out of a job.

So in that time that he was left alone, John Benton discovered that he did indeed have a fear of the dark.


	7. Why?

“Yes, of course, Mrs. Benton - we’ll find John. Don’t worry.” The Brigadier sighed as he hung up the phone, aware that the Doctor was watching him. “I really don’t know what to say anymore, Doctor. He wasn’t in uniform, so there was nothing immediately linking him to us; it’s not like he makes a good target for regular muggings or assault, and there have no reports of unusual activity suggesting an alien presence. It’s like he just vanished off the face of the Earth.”

“And his mother says he never showed up?” The Doctor raised an eyebrow. “That is odd.”

“Exactly. And that was two days ago, Doctor. So now I’m left with a distraught mother whose only question is ‘why’, and I can’t answer it.” He shook his head. “Maybe I ought to get Yates to look through those reports again-” He was cut off by the young Captain himself entering the office.

“Sir.” He had a grave expression on his face. “We’ve found something I think you’ll want to see.”

———

‘Something’ turned out to be Benton’s Ford Granada, which some soldiers had found abandoned at a filling station a little ways off the A40. They had hooked it up to the truck and promptly towed it back to UNIT HQ after discovering that Benton’s possessions (as few as they were) were still inside. There had been no sign of Benton at the station, though. Nothing that had fallen out of his pockets, no signs of a struggle… “It’s like he well and truly vanished, Sir,” Corporal Marsden reported.

“Do you think you could lead me back to that filling station, Corporal?” the Doctor asked. “I should like to have a look around.”

“Of course, Doctor, but with all due respect, we searched the area thoroughly already.”

“I don’t doubt that, Corporal. However, call it scientific curiosity, if you will.”

———

Twenty minutes later, the Doctor was wandering around the premises of the filling station, looking for any clues to the Sergeant’s whereabouts. The proprietor hadn’t seen anything, or if he had, he didn’t seem to care. The Doctor was about to abandon the search when suddenly he caught a faint whiff of something in the air. He grabbed his sonic screwdriver, and pivoted in place as he held it up, attempting to scan whatever it was that he had smelled.

It was clear that it didn’t look like he was doing much of anything, though, as evidenced by Marsden’s slightly puzzled “Whatever are you doing, Doctor?” But he just waved the Corporal off, and tried to maintain his focus. He’d nearly had it…almost…there! There was a faint trail, leading to the back of the building. Once he’d followed it there, though, the signal from the scent abruptly disappeared. The Doctor frowned, then walked back towards Bessie and the Corporal he’d left waiting.

The Brigadier would need to know what was going on, and quickly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no idea why Benton's mother has access to a direct line to UNIT HQ; I just know that when I visualized this chapter, I imagined this phone conversation specifically, with her being all "MY JOHNNY DIDN'T SHOW UP TO SEE ME AND THAT NEVER HAPPENS 'CAUSE HE'S A GOOD BOY AND I'M A SUPER CONCERNED PARENT" with the Brig attempting to get in a word edgewise. So I'm fully aware that it would probably never happen in reality. But still, never mess with upset mothers.


	8. Sixth Sense

Benton had no idea where he was anymore. He’d felt a rumbling, which he assumed was the lizards’ craft taking off, then shortly afterward, it stopped and he was escorted out of his room. Up and down hallways, down several flights of stairs (which he had a hard time attempting to not stumble over), and down a ramp, and he felt a breeze again, leading him to believe he was finally outside.

“Here you are, creature.” He tried not to start at the unexpected voice again right at his elbow. “We have returned you to the place we removed you from. Once again, we thank you for your asssssssistance.”

“You’re welcome.” Benton tried unsuccessfully to not sound bitter at their seemingly blithe attitudes toward his circumstances.

“You should be well once you sssssssssummon your mobility craft,” the lizard continued. “Then you can return to your place of residence with ease.”

“…what do you mean, ‘summon it’? It was here when you took me.” If he wasn’t worried before, he certainly was now.

“Doubtlesssssssssss you have sent it to a place for sssssssafekeeping,” the voice responded. “Why would you sssssssimply leave your possessionsssssss out in the open? Do you wish to invite thieves?”

“Well, no, but…”

“We regret that we cannot remain with you any longer,” the voice sighed. “However, our people require thissssssss cure immediately. We are extremely grateful to you.” And quicker than Benton would have thought possible, the lizard had gone back inside, their craft had rumbled again, and he was suddenly left alone standing on a piece of tarmac by the filling station.

Then the breeze picked up slightly, causing him to shiver, and he remembered something. “Oh, bugger it all - I never did get my jacket back.”

———

Meanwhile, the Doctor had returned to UNIT, and was informing the Brigadier of what he had found. The Brigadier, however, was skeptical. “Let me get this straight, Doctor - you want to borrow some of our most advanced equipment to go investigate a _smell_?”

“Right now it’s the only lead we’ve got, and I intend to make use of it. If my suspicions are correct, Sergeant Benton’s life may be in danger.. Now are you going to let me take that equipment back to that station or not?”

“Alright; I’ll take your word for it. You’re usually right about these things - must be a sixth sense of some kind.” the Brigadier relented. “But I’m sending a couple of men with you for protection.”

The Doctor scoffed. “I don’t need any protection - I’m more than capable of taking care of myself.”

“It’s not you I’m worried about, Doctor; it’s the equipment. Protocols and procedures and all that.” The Brigadier smiled wryly.

Just as the Doctor was about to tell the Brigadier where he could put his protocols, the phone rang. The Brigadier picked it up. “Lethbridge-Stewart.”

There was a moment of silence as he listened to whoever was on the other end, then he finished the call with the standard formalities and hung up. “Forget the equipment, Doctor - we’ve found him.”


	9. Life

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s Note: Benton may seem OOC here, but honestly, can you blame him, given his circumstances?

In what seemed like no time at all, Benton had been brought back to UNIT HQ from where he had been dropped off and was in the medical bay being looked over by the on-duty physician. The Brigadier had been briefed on Benton’s blindness before he went in to see him, so it wasn’t as big of a shock when Benton didn’t meet his gaze when he entered the room. It still pained him, however, to see the normally larger-than-life Sergeant reduced to this - sitting propped up on a bed, eyes clouded with uncertainty, unseeing gaze now fixed somewhere around his lap, and his hands twisting and untwisting a corner of the blanket he was covered with.

Surprisingly, it was Benton who spoke up first. "I suppose you've already been told about my...condition," he gestured listlessly towards his eyes with one hand, still not looking up.

Well, no sense beating around the bush about it. "Yes, I have," the Brigadier said bluntly. "Mind telling me what happened?"

Slowly, the story spilled out: the drive, being kidnapped, the experimentation, the sickness and being left blind, and finally, being abandoned in the field. By the time Benton finished, he sounded weary of it all.

After a pause, the Brigadier spoke. “Well, that’s quite a story, Sergeant.”

“Yes, Sir,” Benton mumbled. “Now, I mean no offence, Sir, but would you mind leaving? I still don’t feel all that well.”

The Brigadier looked at Benton, and had to agree; the man looked like he’d been through the wringer. Who could blame him, though? He’d been in captivity for two days and had been experimented on. “All right, Benton, you get some rest. We’ll talk about this later.”

Benton didn’t acknowledge the last statement, but instead, turned away from the door and closed his eyes as if to sleep, signifying that he had no more to say.

If it had been any other time, the Brigadier wouldn't have tolerated this form of insolence, but he could tell Benton wasn't exactly in a right frame of mind at the moment. He decided that he would deal with it later, and left the room quietly, turning off the light as he did so. He had just closed the door before he realized what an incongruous act that was, but brushed it off as force of habit and continued on his way to go speak to the Doctor about this.

———

Meanwhile, Benton couldn’t sleep. He still felt somewhat ill, so that part of his story wasn’t a lie, but his mind was whirling. The Brigadier knew; he knew that he was handicapped now, and therefore useless to UNIT and to the British Army in general. How long would it be, he wondered? How long before he was given his notice and forced to retire? How long before he was left to live life as John Benton, civilian?

He managed to eventually fall into a fitful sleep, but he tossed and turned the whole time, plagued by nightmares and all sorts of worst-case scenarios. It seemed as though his mind was deliberately trying to play on all his suspicions and fears and torment him incessantly with them.

After one particularly bad nightmare, he woke up with a cry, covered in sweat and shaking. When he didn’t hear anyone come running due to his outburst, he then realized it must be nighttime. Nobody would be up except for the people on watch, and even then, they only made rounds through the medical ward every half hour.

So, realizing he was completely alone in the dark, he simply curled in on himself as best he could on the ward bed and spent the rest of the night unable to sleep, trying to convince himself that there was nothing out there coming to get him.


	10. Days

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s Note: So I lied. I’m currently writing an epilogue of sorts for this story, which will make this 10 + 1 parts long (because the other one should theoretically be able to stand on its own). Should have that done and posted in another day or two.

The next morning, the Doctor came to speak to Benton. He had initially been met with the same sort of response as the Brigadier had, but once he explained to Benton that he knew who the lizard people were (some race that Benton couldn’t ever hope to pronounce the name of even if he tried), Benton had seemed to perk up a little. Then once he took a blood sample and found out what Benton had been given, the Doctor told him that it was only a matter of a few days before he could create an antidote and reverse the effects.

Benton had sounded so hopeful when the Doctor had told him the blindness wasn’t permanent, it was almost heart-breaking. To know that the Sergeant would easily place all that trust in him to find a solution... the Doctor resolved to work that much harder to get the antidote completed quickly.

After that, the next several days passed in a bit of a blur. Benton was moved out of the medical ward, as he had no real need to be in there the whole time while he waited for the antidote, but then the question was raised of where to put him? He couldn’t really be put in the enlisted men’s barracks, as the amount of people and items in there would surely disorient him; not to mention Benton had a top bunk. There was a slight amount of confusion for a little while until Captain Yates spoke up, offering to share his personal officer’s quarters with Benton until he was well again.

This turned out to be for the best, as it gave Benton a place to stay where he wasn’t constantly having to endure a barrage of pity or mocking when he tripped over things or had difficulty tying his tie. The young Captain was helpful without being smothering, encouraging when Benton got frustrated at not being able to do simple tasks anymore, but most importantly, didn’t treat Benton like he was an invalid. And for that, Benton was grateful.

Another benefit that Benton had found was that having a friend nearby helped keep the nightmares and doubts at bay. He was able to sleep well for the first time in days, despite sleeping on the floor.

During the day, Benton worked alongside Jo Grant, taking care of small errands that the Doctor needed her to run. She was glad for the company, and he was glad for the distraction from his worries. Doing even small jobs made him feel like he wasn’t completely useless, despite not being able to see, and Jo’s irrepressible cheerfulness and optimism helped lighten his mood.

Finally, the Doctor completed the antidote, and for Benton, that day couldn’t have come soon enough. Everyone in his circle of friends had gathered around to see if it would work, all apprehensive for him. When the antidote finally took effect, and Benton blinked his eyes several times as if to clear his vision, then actually **looked** at them all, the excitement was a giddying feeling.

Benton would never admit it later, but knowing that the harrowing ordeal was all over and he could see again; he definitely shed tears of joy. As it was, he had immediately enveloped the Doctor in a gigantic hug, thanking him profusely for all his help. The Doctor had stumbled back, clearly not expecting that kind of reaction, but recovered well, regaining his balance and brushing it off with a smile and “You’re welcome, Sergeant.”

Jo had also given him a hug, and Mike had clapped him on the back and made a joke about getting his floor space back. Once everyone else had offered their congratulations, the Brigadier’s moustache had twitched upwards as he’d observed, “Who would have thought three days leave would cause this much commotion?” while he handed Benton another signed leave form. “Do try not to get in trouble this time, Sergeant.”

Benton could only smile wryly as he took the papers. “I’ll do my best, Sir.”


End file.
